14 December 2009

Call for ICT use in agricultural research

A recent news item reports from the Hyderabad workshop on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) organised by ICRISAT, GFAR and FAOGlobal Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) and FAO.

The article highlights that Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has immense potential in empowering farming communications and it should be put to greater use by the agricultural research and extension institutions, as said by Dave Hoisington, Deputy Director-General (Research) of International Crops Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

Hoisington pointed out that politicians were able to effectively use new technologies including ICT and the agricultural scientists must take a cue from them. “Unfortunately, till now ICT has not been given the due importance it deserves, and this has to be corrected to achieve more positive results,’’ he added.

ICRISAT Director-General William D Dar highlighted the importance of information in agriculture, and encouraged the workshop to come up with fresh and innovative ideas that could be the mainstream in the new paradigm of international agricultural research.

Ajit Maru, GFAR, defined the theme of the consultations and opined that ICT should be accorded prominence by treating it as frontier technology on a par with biotechnology and nanotechnology.“Once this is done, it should be able to attract more investments to take on new and challenging tasks of improving the livelihoods of resource-poor small holders and producers,’’ he said.

Read the article.

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